


Restart My Heart

by LivingOutLoud



Series: Your Name on My Skin [3]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, character almost-death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:08:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6330472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivingOutLoud/pseuds/LivingOutLoud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>away missions are always dangerous and this time it's Chekov who falls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Restart My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> A soulmate marks AU where everyone is born with the name of their Soulmates on them. This is a series of Chekov/McCoy oneshots exploring what would happen in a world where you know someone is meant to be your soulmate by their name alone, without knowing anything else about them, and how that stunts Chekov and McCoy’s relationship before it even begins, and the painfully slow journey it takes them to finally accept it. The one-shots will be self-contained snapshots of their changing relationship in chronological order.

It sounded like it was turning out to be an ordinary away mission to McCoy, in the sense that it sounded like everything was going to hell in a hand-basket. He always made a point of staying in med bay and listening to the communications coming from the bridge for that exact reason when people were on an away mission. Today, Chekov, Sulu, and Spock were on a scientific mission to an uninhabited planet, mostly covered in liquid water like earth. Apparently all of the oceans were fresh water and safe for human consumption, and they were doing some tests. There was a load of shouts cutting in and out from the away team, kirk shouting orders, Uhura trying to get them back. Then Kirk came over his intercom, “Bones, we’re beaming the away team straight to the med bay, some accident in the water. I’ll be there in a moment.

“Acknowledged.” Bones said.

All hands collected in the middle of the room, ready for the impending chaos, then in a second, Spock, Sulu, and Chekov materialized into the sick bay. Spock looked shocked, a little wet, but fine. Sulu was gripping tightly to Chekov’s motionless body, both men laying on the med bay floor, soaked to the bone.

“The Cliffside collapsed into the ocean.” Spock said. “Sulu went after him, but he was in the water for two point three minutes.”

M’Benga and Bones lifted Chekov’s body onto an examination table as Kirk came through the door.

“How is he?” Jim asked.

“His heart’s stopped.” McCoy said. He tried to shock Pavel’s heart back to working, once, twice, a third time. None of his vital signs changed.

“Oh god.” Sulu whispered, raising his hand to his mouth.

“You can bring him back, Bones. You have to.” Kirk said.

“Get me the adrenaline shot. We need to inject it right into his heart.” Bones said to M’Benga. He tore Chekov’s yellow shirt open at the neck line while Geoffrey readied the needle.

The room went silent as the realization hit everyone in a wave. Over Pavel’s heart, on the flesh slowly turning blue, “Leonard Horatio McCoy” stood out in a thick black cursive. McCoy didn’t pause in his task, but everyone else seemed frozen from the words.

“Len, If you want me to…” M’Benga began.

“Give me the adrenaline.”

He handed McCoy the long needle. Leonard pressed his fingers to his own name, feeling the spaces between Chekov’s ribs. He positioned the needle expertly in the ‘r’ of Leonard and plunged the needle deep into his chest. Chekov’s body spasmed and the monitors beeped and flashed with life.

“We need to drain the water from his lungs, or he’ll just drown again. Here, you do the left while I do the right.” McCoy said to M’Benga.

They worked quickly, with incisions and tubes to drain the liquid, more hoses and a mask when they got Pavel breathing again. Then they spent nearly an hour setting broken bones and healing lesions and cuts. While they worked, M’Benga got the nurses to set Sulu’s broken leg and gave him an oxygen mask to help with the hyperventilating he was beginning to have. They gave him some medication for shock and insisted Spock sit down and take at least a half-shot. Though he insisted not to be in shock, his hands were shaking uncontrollably.

When they finally finished, M’Benga took a seat next to Chekov and breathed a sigh of relief. “He’ll make it.”

Kirk placed a hand on Bones’ shoulder, but the man still wouldn’t stop moving. He unfolded a thermal blanket and put it over Chekov’s still chilled body, pulling it up past the soul mark, then he ran his hand through his hair and looked around.

“I’m going to take a breather somewhere else, Geoff, if you think you can handle the rest.”

“Of course,” the other doctor said. “I’ll call you when he is awake.”

“Call me if the kid gets worse. Otherwise, you handle it.”

“Alright.” M’benga said.

McCoy went to his office, and closed the door behind him. He sat and took a hypo from his desk, giving himself something for the shock. He rubbed at the tears threatening to fall from his tired eyes. The captain let himself in to the office minutes later, to find McCoy slumped on the desk, head in his hands, intently focussed on taking deep, even breaths.

“Bones?” Kirk spoke softly. “Are you alright?”

McCoy didn’t answer, just breathed in and out, focussing on not crying, not having a breakdown in his office.

“I take it by your lack of shock, you knew about his soul mark.”

Bones sat up slowly to face his best friend, his captain. He nodded.

“And have you got his name?”

Bones nodded again.

Kirk sat down across from the med officer’s desk. “Have you known since he came on the ship?”

Bones let out a snort of derision, less enthusiastic than usual. “We met in the first year at the academy remember?”

Kirk leaned forward and placed his elbows on the desk. “You two knew back then? God, he was just a kid then.”

“He’s still just a kid.”

“He’s eighteen, almost nineteen.” Kirk said.

“He’s still too young. He shouldn’t even be on this damned ship at his age.” Bones ran his fingers through his hair. He wiped at the tears building in his eyes. “Today was too damned close.”

“He’s going to be fine, you saved him.” Kirk said.

Bones didn’t say anything for a long time. He didn’t make eye contact with Kirk, he sat worrying at the edge of his uniform sleeve.

“Do you need to tell anyone about this?” McCoy asked. “Do we-are we going to have to register our soul marks now?”

 Jim sighed deeply, trying to switch to captain mode. “In the end, I guess it’s up to the two of you. But I’ve never heard of two soulmates finding each other and not registering with star fleet. It’s supposed to make assignments and promotions and days like today easier, I’d have never told you to deal with him possibly d- with something so serious, if I had known, Bones.”

“It’s fine, I’m the chief medical officer for a reason. And cases of life and death should be treated by the best doctor available. Besides, we’re never going to be together, so there’s nothing to be concerned about. I’d appreciate if you didn’t say anything about all of this.”

“Alright,” Kirk said, “I won’t say anything officially in the logs. But you know I can’t promise no one else will talk. Maybe not Spock or Sulu, but a good handful of your nurses saw your name. And I can’t change security footage if someone watches it.”

“Do what you can.” Bones said, rubbing his eyes again. “I think I’m going to go to my quarters and lie down, if that’s alright. Tell Geoffrey to call me on the com if anything gets worse.

 

Chekov woke up slowly, first to the sounds of the beeping machines and monitors, then he slowly opened his eyes to the bright light of the med bay.

“You’re awake,” Sulu said from a chair at his bedside.

“What happened?” Chekov asked.

“What do you remember?”

Pavel’s mouth was dry, and his body ached everywhere, especially his chest. “We were on the planet. I remember falling, hitting the water.”

“The cliff collapsed. You drowned.” Sulu said. “Doctor McCoy restarted your heart. Though it took him three or four tries.” Sulu was trying to be light-hearted, but his worry shone through.

Pavel gave a pained groan.

“They said to keep lying still. Your lungs had to be drained of the water and M’benga doesn’t want you to even stretch too much till tomorrow, or you might tear something open again. But he said you’d be fine, you’ll be able to go back to duty in a few days.”

“Everything hurts.” Pavel groaned. He moved his hand up to cover his heart, still throbbing and beating too quickly, to find his shirt removed. He pulled the thermal blanket up from where it had slipped down below his mark.

            “Did you see?” Pavel said, panicked, covering the mark with his hand.

            “Uh.” Sulu looked sheepish. “Doctor McCoy had to remove your shirt to get at your heart and lungs. He-uh- he saw your mark.”

            “Who else?” Pavel asked, more worried about that than McCoy.

            “Me, Spock, the Captain, M’benga, some nurses.” Sulu said, worried about Pavel’s heightened stress. “Captain Kirk went to talk to Doctor McCoy after you were stabilized. Then he asked all of us to keep quiet about your mark. Hopefully it won’t get around.”

            “And the doctor, did he seem mad?”

            “He looked terrified, but I’m sure that was because you were technically dead at the time. Your mark barely seemed to faze him.”


End file.
